WHEN YOU are studying or when acquiring new information, your brain has to work harder. As it works hard, it needs the right nutrients in order to function properly. When you are cramming, however, you tend to forget eating as it might take a portion of your time. Hey, even if you spend the whole day studying your lessons, your brain wouldn’t be able to store the information if you don’t eat the right food. So, try marauding your kitchen if you have any of these food stuff that will held boost your mental activity.

You would know that it’s examination time when you see students photocopying notes or cramming to absorb one-quarter-of-a-school-year’s worth of lessons in ten subjects within just one night. Admit it, you must be one of them, too. Don’t worry, I also did that when I was a student, but I have realized early on that cramming just doesn’t work.

TODAY’S GENERATION may be aptly called the generation of social networking. Get inside any classroom and ask who among the students have an account on Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, Tumblr, Formspring, or Friendster, and behold a sea of hands raised in response. If you would even pry into how much time they spend on these social networking sites, you would wonder if they still have time for their studies. Until thorough research is made, we can only speculate on the extent of influence social networking sites have on our kids.

In addition to the strategies I employ to make physics interesting to my students, I organized peer study teams among my students. This program aims to mobilize my students to help each other in reviewing their lessons and ultimately, to improve their performance in class.

THE UPCAT Results were released yesterday and immediately looked for my students’ names in when I learned about it. It is our pride when our students go to the University of the Philippines for their tertiary education.

Instead of writing a new year’s resolution, The Teacher’s Notebook recommends drafting a strategic plan for the new year. Without a clear plan, the year 2011 would just be another 365 days that will come and go unnoticed.

ONE OF the activities conducted during the 2010 Science Camp of Alabel National Science High School was Stargazing, which I was tasked to facilitate. It wasn’t the best time to look at the stars since the moon was shining brightly and some portions of the sky were covered with mist but…

“Break away from my routine,” is what Mrs. Aleli Dasmariñas suggests.

But what activities can we do to break away from our routines?

For those who still haven’t planned their vacations, here are some suggestions:

IN ORDER to shine the light on DepEd’s Enhanced K+12 Curriculum, a team of communication officers of the Division of Sarangani will conduct a series of information dissemination and discussion forums on January 2011.

They may not cover all the important considerations, but at least, they give me a clear idea of what I am doing and why I am doing it. ICT integration does not only mean making use of technology in teaching but making sure that they effectively facilitate learning.